Forest Scene

3. Chasing a Shadow

As always, thanks to everyone who read and to everyone who reviewed. A special thanks to those who took the time to correct my mistakes ;)

"Granger, Hermione."

The witch on the picture continued naming people, but Harry wasn't listening. Hermione was in St. Mungo's, wounded... dead? His mind was racing, faster and faster; all he could think of was of her, screaming silently as a stream of green light washed over her.

He became dimly aware that Lupin was helping him get back on his feet, and realized he must have fallen off the chair he'd been sitting on. Dumbledore was talking to him, but he had to make a real effort to understand what he was saying.

"...until we find out whatever happened, Harry, so stay calm for now, alright? I know it's difficult..." Dumbledore was saying. Harry noticed he was holding a charred piece of wood on his hand. Looking behind, he saw that the chair he'd been sitting on lied in smouldering pieces on the floor, and that there were scorched marks on the wall. It had been a while since he'd done any magic without meaning to.

"I - I have to go there. To St. Mungo's - " he said, " - she must have been there with Hagrid." For a moment he wondered what had happened to his friend Hagrid, but as his name hadn't been mentioned, he thought he was probably alright. But Hermione...

"I understand, Harry," said the Headmaster softly. "You can get there through the floo network - but we have other ways to travel. I think we should go there and see for ourselves. I'm going with you, Harry."

Harry looked into the Dumbledore's eyes, and amidst the dreariness that was filling his whole being, he silently thanked the old wizard for not leaving him alone in what he realized was suddenly becoming the worst moment of his life. He thought of his parents, and Cedric, and Sirius; was he now going to lose his best friend as well?

"Could you be so kind as to let Professor McGonagall know where we're going, Remus?" said Dumbledore.

"Of course, Professor. Here, Harry, I was meaning to give you this - open it later, will you?" Lupin gave Harry a small package, which he quickly pocketed after muttering "Thanks."

After giving Harry's shoulder a soft squeeze, Lupin left the office. "Now," continued the Headmaster, "we're going to need your help, Fawkes."

The Phoenix jumped into his extended arm with one swift movement of his red and golden wings, and as he put his other arm around Harry's shoulders, Dumbledore said "Ready, Harry?" Harry just nodded. "Well, then, Fawkes, you've heard us talking. Let's go!"

And with a sudden flash of light no one could see, they were gone.

...

They reappeared on the reception hall of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. The place was even more crowded and noisier than usual, and full of official-looking wizards and witches, who stared at them - the Boy-who-lived and the most powerful wizard of the country holding onto a Phoenix where a rather odd picture in an already strange place. As Harry made it to run towards the spokeswitch to ask for information on Hermione's whereabouts, someone called out his name, and he turned around to see Kingsley Shacklebolt sitting on a bench with a bandaged arm. Dumbledore had spotted him too and they both approached the Auror who, Harry noticed, looked rather tired.

"Hello, Kingsley," said the Headmaster. "We're here - obviously - to see what happened. Got any news for us?"

"No, Albus, nothing more than what I've already reported earlier," the Auror said quietly. "But you might want to ask Tonks, she was there too - "

"Have you seen Hermione?" Harry interrupted roughly.

"Oh - your friend? Yes, she was here earlier, but she's gone now" answered Shacklebolt.

"What - what do you mean?" asked Harry, his face white as a paper.

"She was with Hagrid, and I saw them both leaving just a few minutes ago. They were going back to Hogwarts, I think."

"So she's alright? She's not - hurt?" Harry, who was breathing again, thought asking if she was not dead would be both stupid now and overly dramatic, so he corrected himself in mid-sentence.

"She seemed alright to me," said Shacklebolt, "but you'll have to ask her yourself. Probably got stunned like so many others and was brought here for a check-up, though. I wouldn't worry if I were you."

Harry stood there, speechless, the color returning to his face. Hermione was alive, she was fine; in fact, she was probably looking for him back at Hogwarts, and he would be talking to her right now if he hadn't made Dumbledore rush him to the hospital. He felt a bit dumb now.

Dumbledore, though, gave him a small, worn smile - the first he had shown him in all morning. "It seems you better go back to the school, Harry. I'll stay here, trying to see how the victims of the attack are, and what can they tell us. You go now, and I'll see you later - I don't need to remind you to be careful, alright, Harry?"

"Yeah... thanks, Professor," said Harry, who had just noticed he was shaking. "Hum, I'll see you later then, Sir - Mr. Shacklebolt." They both nodded as Harry made to leave.

There were several fireplaces in one side of the hall, which he hadn't noticed before. A few of them where for incoming people, and there were queues on the outgoing ones. Harry took a place in the shortest queue, wishing they would all hurry up. He stared at the back of the witch in front of him, not really seeing anything. It seemed incredible that not even half an hour ago he'd been sleeping on his bed on the Leaky Cauldron, so much had happened since then. He'd found about about the attack, thought one of his best friends had died and discovered that she was alright. He'd gone from numbness to panic to anger to relief, all in so few short minutes. "What if she had been killed?" he thought. "What if Voldermort had gotten her?" What would he doing right now, instead of standing on this queue? He didn't know for sure, but he had a feeling that it would have involved him barging into some of the places the Order thought were hideouts for Death Eaters and blasting a lot of things - and people - apart.

And then the witch in front of him had dissappeared. Harry mechanically spread the floo powder on the fireplace, said "Gryffindor Tower, Hogwarts" in a throaty voice, and then he walked through the fire too.

...

He emerged on the other side and, surprisingly, he didn't feel dizzy at all, though, he thought, this was probably because he was already feeling angry and relieved and anxious, and there was simply no more room left in him to feel anything else.

"Alright, Harry?" said the familiar voice of Colin Creevey from a corner. He didn't bother replying properly though.

"Have you seen Hermione Granger?" he spat.

"Yeah, she was here just a minute ago. Didn't look too great though - Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil dragged her to the girl's room."

Harry turned on his heels and stared at the staircase climbing to the girl's side of the tower. He knew it was no use trying to go up there as boys weren't allowed, but still... He made his decision and grabbed the arm of a startled second year girl who was nearby.

"Hey - you - do me a favour, alright? Can you go to the sixth years' bedroom and tell a girl named Hermione that I want to talk to her? Please?" He finished in a pleading note, realizing he'd been rather rough so far.

The girl nodded and did as he'd asked her to. Harry paced up and down the short way from the girls' staircase to the fireplace, until she returned, a couple of minutes later.

"She says not to worry, Harry, but she's busy right now and she'll see you later, ok?" the girl said.

"What - yeah - alright, thank you," he replied. He was starting to feel angry again; why would she delay coming to talk to him? Didn't she realize just how worried he was? But at least she was here and she was, well, alive, he thought.

When he turned around he noticed Dennis Creevey had joined his brother and they were both signaling for him to go talk to them. Between that and being annoyed for not being able to see Hermione, he decided to go out for a while. When he was climbing out of the hole covered by the Fat Lady's portrait, he thought about Hagrid, and decided to go check on him.

An uneventful little trip down the castle's staircases and grounds, Harry was knocking on the door of Hagrid's hut.

"C'mon in!" he heard from inside, over the booming of Fang's barking.

"Hi, Hagrid," he said as he entered the house, fighting to keep the enormous dog from licking his face.

"Merry Christmas, Harry," said the Gamekeeper, and paused. "'Fraid it ain't too much of a 'appy day, 'sn't it? Those blasted Dark Wizards!" he added, and hit the table with his fist, making Fang divert his attention from Harry's face and stare at him.

"So, are you going to tell me what happened?" asked Harry, sitting down across the table from Hagrid. Fang went back to him, but limited himself to rest his head on Harry's leg, making it all wet with his spit.

"Not much ter tell yeh, really. We're just there, miding yer own b'sness, then all of the sudden, people start blasting spells all over yeh. Bad things, Harry. People dead, like yeh wouldn' believe. Ol' Diggory got 'imself badly hurt. Yeh know 'im, don'cha Harry?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I met him 'couple of years back... then I saw him the night Cedric was killed." He stopped for a moment; after all this time, the memory of that night always brought him back a mess of tangled emotions. "What were you doing there, anyways? On Christmas day?" he asked.

"Got a special meeting, yeh know. That 'hole deal with Bucky's case turned out ter be tougher than we thought. Tell yeh the truth, if it wasn't for Hermione's help, there wouldn't be nuttin ter do, really. She's found us a lot of useful stuff, she has."

And so Harry was brought back to the issue of his friend.

"Tell me, Hagrid, is she alright? I haven't been able to see her - follow her all around the place, actually." His voice betrayed he was more than a little resentful for this.

"Oh, she'll be fine, don'cha worry 'bout it. She actually helped them Aurors, yeh know? Jinxed a couple of them blasted Death Eaters before getting herself Stunned. Oh, and I think sum of the fire got her too."

"Fire?" said Harry, startled. He hadn't heard anything about fire until now.

"Yeh, but again, don'cha worry 'bout it, she's alrite, she is."

Harry opened his mouth to say that he was worried about it nevertheless, but he was interrupted when someone knocked softly on the door.

"Door's open!" boomed Hagrid.

Slowly, the door swung forwards and a small head with big green eyes and long floppy ears appeared behind it.

"Hi, Dobby," said Harry, surprised to see the house-elf here of all places.

"Oh! Merry Christmas, Harry Potter! Merry Christmas, sir Hagrid!" squeaked the tiny creature.

"Merry Christmas, Dobby," they both replied at once. "What are yeh doing 'ere, Dobby?" asked Hagrid.

"Dobby is coming here to invite you to the house-elves cellebration!" said Dobby.

Harry looked from Dobby to Hagrid, wondering what the house-elf was talking about. Hagrid wasn't at all surprised, though.

"'Fraid I can't make it there this time, Dobby. Lots'a things ter do today, what with the attack 'n all. Thanks for inviting me, though," he said.

"Oh, Dobby understands, sir..." The house-elf remained quiet for a moment, apparently waiting for something. Finally, he spoke again. "Will Harry Potter be coming to our cellebration, then?"

"What? Er - " Harry didn't know what to say. Playing for time, he asked: "What is this cellebration you're talking about, Dobby?"

"Tis the house-elves cellebration of Christmas day, Harry Potter! After the sires and misses has done having their cellebration and the house-elves has nothing to work on, they held their own party every year, sir! And some sires and misses are invited too," said Dobby excitedly.

"Really good party, Harry, yeh oughta go if yeh have nuttin' else ter do. I go there ev'ry year if I can make it" said Hagrid, smiling under the mass of tangled hair that was his beard.

"It is, Harry Potter, really! Dobby would has invited you before but sir wasn't here last year for Christmas, and Dobby came to Hogwarts after Christmas the year before!" Harry noticed that the house-elf was getting more excited with every word. He didn't know what to say. On one hand, this sounded like something he should see at least once in his life (it had to be better than the Deathday party he had attended to during his second year). But somehow it didn't seem right to be in any kind of party hours after people had been killed at the Ministry. The thought of the attack made him remember something else.

"Oh, I don't know Dobby. I need to go and see how Hermione's doing - " he started saying, but Dobby interrupted him earnestly.

"But miss is coming to the party too, Harry Potter! Dobby asked the other house-elves to let her come - some of them wasn't too happy but most wants her there too!"

"They do?" asked Harry, frankly bewildered. Hermione had changed her strategy for S.P.E.W. this year; she'd been visiting the kitchens and talking to the house-elves individually. He and Ron had thought she was wasting her time, but apparently some of the house-elves, at least, had taken to like her, if they wanted her there.

"Yes, Harry Potter, they does! Dobby has just been in the Gryffindor Tower and invited miss Hermione and she said she's coming!" Dobby was decidedly delighted with this, and he looked at Harry expectantly. He sighed and made up his mind.

"Alright, Dobby, I'll be there. After the feast is over, right?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Dobby, jumping in place, his ears twitching. "Oh, this is wonderful! Harry Potter is coming to the cellebration! Such an honor! We is so happy!" And with that, he dissapparated with a faint pop.

"Wait!" cried Harry. "Rats... he didn't even tell me where it is!" he said, more to himself than to anyone.

"That's alrite, Harry. I've been there meself, 'member?"

"Of course," said Harry, feeling, not for the first time in the evening, a little dumb. "So, where is it? Where do the house-elves go to get wild, Hagrid?" he asked.

Hagrid gave him an appraising look. Then he smiled in a way that told Harry that whatever was coming would be no good to him.

"Why, deep in the Forest, of course!" Hagrid said.

...

To be concluded soon! Yeah, I know i keep saying that. A few things I have to say:

First of all, I'm sorry this keeps getting longer and longer. I know I said it would be two chapters. That's because most of it was already written, but I've been having too much fun rewriting it and expanding it. I hope no one's too bugged by this; if you like it, then you shouldn't mind it doesn't end so soon ;) It will definitely end in the next chapter though.

Second, another apology, this one for making this chapter so short. I really wanted to post it and I don't have time to finish the rest of the fic today. That will make for a rather short final chapter too, I guess, but at least you get something to read for the time being, huh? Also, I guess I felt a little guilty for the cliff hanger of the previou chapter. I got so many notes for that!

Third, about the cliffy: even though I enjoyed it, you should know that wasn't just me being evil. The cliff hanger had a purpose, which is to let the readers feel a little bit of what Harry must have felt upon hearing the dreadful news. This is important, as the whole fic centers on Harry's feelings. So now you know why I did that :)

Finally, I'm just wondering, did anyone get the little Final Fantasy VII reference? I guess not...

Anyways, stay tuned for the much famed Forest Scene, coming soon to a browser near you.

Text from the Wayback Machine's capture of the site, 26 June 2008.

Report a problem with this chapter